The disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method for detecting the presence of a mobile device in a room, in particular in a medical treatment room.
The starting situation is as follows: at least one mobile device and at least one target device which is intended to be controlled using the mobile device are situated in a room. The mobile device can be removed from the room during a conventional workflow. In particular, it is possible to easily move the mobile device to another room and to use it in the other room.
In contrast, the target device is intended to be understood as meaning the equipment in the room. Therefore, in the case of the target device, there is no provision for the target device to be removed from the room during a normal workflow. Therefore, the target devices include, in particular, those devices which are designed to permanently remain in the room.
In order to be able to control the target device using the mobile device, there is a device control unit for controlling the target device. The mobile device transmits control commands, in particular using wireless transmission, to the device control unit which then in turn controls the target device. In this case, the device control unit usually acts as a broker between the mobile device and the target device and verifies the control commands.
This set-up is found, for example, in an operating room where an operating table as the target device can be remotely controlled by means of a remote control as the mobile device via a wireless connection. In this case, it is important for the spatial relationship between the mobile device and the target device to be protected, i.e., the mobile device and the target device must be in the same room in order to ensure reliable operation. In this case, a criterion for reliable operation is often that the operator can directly discern effects of his inputs in the process behaviour.
Due to the usually wireless connection between the mobile device and the device control unit, it is no longer ensured, unlike in the case of wired connections, that the mobile device is in the same room as the target device just because a connection exists between the mobile device and the target device. In addition, a one-to-one assignment is generally not desired since the mobile device is intended to also be able to be used in other rooms, but not unintentionally.
Due to the wireless transmission technologies which are available nowadays, it is readily possible for the mobile device to be in another room, possibly even far away from the room in which the target device is situated. The situation may therefore arise in which a user outside the room inadvertently operates the target device. In particular, the situation may arise in which the user having the mobile device is situated in a first room in order to control a target device situated there, but the user actually, i.e., incorrectly, controls a target device in a second room. Such errors are particularly dangerous in medical treatment rooms, in particular, for example an operating room.
The prior art has already disclosed interesting aspects. For example, US 2011/0063429 describes that an ultrasound signal is emitted inside a room and an attempt is made to intercept the ultrasound signal with a control microphone which is used to control the target device. If the ultrasound signal can be detected by the control microphone, this allows the conclusion that the control microphone is in the correct room, i.e., in the room in which the ultrasound signal is emitted.
Another idea is to equip a mobile microphone for voice control with an RFID chip. If the identification number of the microphone is also received when all RFID chips in the room are queried, it can be concluded from this that the microphone is in the correct room, i.e., in the room in which the RFID query was carried out.
Despite the great reliability of the methods from the prior art, particular potential error situations may nevertheless possibly not be reliably detected. Therefore, an object is to show an improved apparatus and an improved method for detecting the presence of a mobile device in a room. In this case, the intention is also, in particular, to ensure in unusual and rare configurations that a mobile device is actually detected as being present in a room only when the mobile device is also actually present in this room.